


keep your money, you can take my time

by yoonkook_x



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Everyone Is Gay, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/F, Fights, Gay, Hospitalization, M/M, Multi, Rescue, Sad, Sad with a Happy Ending, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn, core four are dicks lol, except ronnie, fangs is sad, she's nice for once, sweet pea is a softie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-13 01:58:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17479064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yoonkook_x/pseuds/yoonkook_x





	1. Chapter 1

Car horns and muffled conversations from the apartments above and below surrounded Fangs’ as he took another drag from his cigarette. The crackling of the rolled tobacco and the hot smoke filling his lungs is what brought his mind to ease on his working nights. He wore nothing but his plain grey boxers he found for $3 at Wal-Mart, ignoring the goosebumps he got when the cold, 2am wind brushed against his smooth skin. The feeling of a calloused hand on the junction of his neck and shoulder caused his muscles to tense up.

“I’m ready for round two, darlin’,” the gruff voice sounded.

Fangs Fogarty was only a few months away from his twenty-first birthday. What was normally a very large milestone for other people around him, Fangs worried it was another year closer to no longer being attractive enough to pay the bills. See, Fangs was a homme de plaisir, or more commonly known as, a prostitute. This wasn’t a fetish, he didn’t like get sexualized by men and women alike every night. He did it for his younger sister and his mother, who lived in Mexico. Fangs and his father had left to America to try to find a better life for their family, that was seven years ago. He didn’t know where his father was now.

Fangs was lucky enough to have had enough friends and connections in America that he was able to find his mother and sister and talk to them. That was how he had found out how bad their living conditions were ever since they left. And once he found out how bad his sister had gotten sick, he knew he had to do something to try to send money over to them. Of course, selling himself wasn’t his very first choice, but his earlier jobs were never cutting it for him, especially since a majority of the time, he had stolen and wired money to his family without corporate knowing. But, they always found out, and he always got fired. Not like the pay was good anyway.

He didn’t just stumble across the job randomly, no, it was introduced to him, by a friend. And once Toni heard that her friend needed to get good money fast, she knew where to lead him. And Toni didn’t just throw him into the whore house with a stiff kick to his ass, a clear bon voyage, she had worked there, too. They had been friends for almost the entire time Fangs had lived in Los Angeles, 4 years. And with her help, and his naturally gorgeous body, he was able to get through the “rankings” quickly and become an often purchased cocotte, which was quite the accomplishment in Toni’s eyes. In order to cope, Fangs begun to treat it like a game. He was able to reel in a few others so the jobs wouldn’t feel like such an exhausting feat. It wasn’t the best solution to the dilemma, but it helped bring back the others’ joyfulness, and Fangs had always been someone who loved to make others happy, even if he wasn’t.

And possibly he could be someone who did better things, who actually had a life to live with important values and goals, but in a weird way, Fangs fell in a calming state during this time of his life. He had a routine, friends that would die for him, and a way to get a lot of fast cash. It was almost like Stockholm Syndrome, where he’s grown fond of his capture, and almost didn’t know how to survive without it. Without the house, he’d be lost and scared and would more than likely be dead by now. He’s been here since he was seventeen, this is practically all he knows.

While he was walking home from his most recent rendezvous, he wished he had done a little extra with his buyer so he could’ve gotten a ride home, but he wanted to get away from the older man as soon as possible. The man had scared him a little, but now he wished he withstood the odd feeling he got and was able to get a ride from him. It was getting close to September, meaning it was getting chillier by the moment. This time of year was a conundrum for Fangs, as autumn was his favorite season, but being what he was, the “traveling from house to house every night” made the cold nights hard to bear with.

As he pulled his jacket tighter across his body and watched the air go out of his mouth, trying to entertain himself with that before he got to his apartment. Fangs heard snickers behind him, causing him to pull his jacket even tighter across his slightly masculine body and start to walk faster on the pavement. The footsteps that he heard behind him begun to follow suit and Fangs sighed. He always had to deal with jerks like this ruining his night, although, most of the time, it wasn’t ideal in the first place. As he listened closer to the footsteps while trying to simultaneously quicken his own pace without going into a sprint, he realized there were two pairs of footsteps and his breath caught in his throat. Dear God, if he got mugged tonight, he didn’t know what he’d do.

“Careful, Pea, don’t get too close. Superglue your pockets before trying to have fun with him,” one of the, now obviously males, said.

They must’ve seen him leave the man’s home, and put two and two together. The male he was just with wasn’t exactly famous for his clean record, ironically being known for buying out prostitutes while his wife was away. What scum, but money is money.

The comments didn’t bother Fangs that much. After all, he has been in the routine for longer that other prostitutes have. He was able to build up a strong, tall wall, where no sticks, stones, nor words could penetrate his, surprisingly fragile, soul.

The guys behind him continued to follow him, and he thought it wouldn’t be best to lead them straight to his apartment, so he headed on a right in the fork in the road and headed toward Toni’s house. Of course, with the guys not far behind. Fangs never turned around to look at who the guys were, but he was sure they were big, buff, and scary, and while Fangs could be a macho man if he wanted to, he was too wore out to even think about starting a fight with these guys, who seemingly thought this was the funniest thing in the world, with them cracking up every second.

Fangs tried to sneak a glance at the two males, and didn’t realize how close they had gotten to him already in this 10 minute walk, and that made him jump a little. Now he was actually getting scared, and he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He saw Toni’s house with one of the lights on nearby and thought that if he could make it only a few more minutes, he would be okay and safe. His fast paced walking soon turned into a little job until he finally made it to her house and grabbed the spare key in the fake plant and ran in, locking the door behind him. That’s when the soft tears had come, only a couple though. He peeked through the white curtains out the window after hearing their chuckles echo down the empty street, staring at the two guys with a frown plastered on his face and his eyebrows furrowed tightly. He made eye contact with one of the guys and he could’ve sworn he saw the tall boys smile twitch downward for a split second before cracking up again and dragging the, now obviously drunk, guy down the street where they originally came. Toni, after hearing the commotion by the front door, came down fast, with another one of the girls from the house following suit. Cheryl was her name, but her nickname was Cherry, because she pretended to be a virgin with clients to make them like her more. It was smart, really, and Cheryl was a smart girl. Fangs always suspected something going on between them, but now with them coming out of Toni's bedroom, and with Cheryl only in a bra, they had confirmed his suspicions.

“Fangs?” Toni’s uncharacteristically soft voice said, turning on the main hall light and crossing the distance to pull him from his leaning spot on the wall, near the windows.

“What happened? Are you okay?” Toni always worried about him, and it made him wish his sister was there, she would love these guys. When he shook his head side-to-side continuously, Toni glanced over to Cheryl, who also had a worried look on her face. Toni had sighed and brought him to the couch and went to go get him a glass of Cheryl’s cherry cola, which was bother hers and Fangs favorite. It’s what they bonded over when they first met, so it’s like a little thing between them that made them closer. It was nice, Fangs liked having things like that.

When Toni brought the glass over, he nodded a thank you to her and sipped it slowly, savoring the bubbles in his mouth. Cheryl patted his shoulder and he set the drink down on the table and looked down at his hands, sitting on his crossed legs.

“I got followed after being with Mr. Billows,” he started off quietly, which only caused the two girls’ faces to get even more worried. “And I don’t know what came over me but I got really scared and I didn’t wanna seem like a pussy in front of these guys,” he chuckled a little, but the other two stayed quiet, with Cheryl pursing her lips. “I didn’t know what to do and I came here and I’m sorry I just barged in and I can probably leave now if you want, I’m sure they’re gone by now, it’ll be fine I’ll just get out of you ha-” Toni cut him off.

“You are absolutely crazy if I’m gonna let you, my little, baby brother go out there like this. Yes, it is scary and you have every right to be terrified now. You can stay here tonight, alright? We’ll pull out the couch and you can get cozy here. Plus, your houses heater never works, it’s better here anyway.” She said, already getting up and getting everything set up while Fangs looked down again smiled. He really didn’t deserve these guys.

“I’m sorry that happened,” Cheryl finally spoke up, Fangs now realizing how tired she sounded. “You don’t deserve that, no one does,” she said, halfway smiling at him and ruffling his hair before standing up and walking over the help Toni get everything out of the way before running and grabbing some old clothes he had left there other days when they had sleepovers. He went to go change and hoped that tomorrow would be better, especially if he had his friends by his side.

Tomorrow was less eventful, but Fangs was grateful.

Throughout the rest of the day, Fangs mostly helped Toni and Cheryl at the house, and ate most of their food. He didn't work another night until tomorrow, so it was nice to finally be with his friends and hang like they were normal people for once. As his Hot Pocket heated up in the microwave, his phone began to vibrate, and Fangs went to go pick it up from where it was sitting on the back of the couch. He saw that it was a private number and excused himself from Toni's and his chat before going off into the bathroom and locking the door.

When Toni noticed Fangs had been in the bathroom for over ten minutes without coming out to steal the Hot Pocket, Toni wondered what was going on with the phone call. With Cheryl busy on her laptop in the other room, Toni quietly went over to the hallway bathroom and leaned her ear against the wooden door. She could barely make out what he was saying with how muffled he was speaking and with how shaky his voice was. She could only make out two sentences.

“No tengo dinero, mamá.” He said, leaning against the wall with a grunt.

Pause. She could hear him shuffling and sniffling in the bathroom before he spoke again.

“Porque es difícil en este momento. Necesito ir. te quiero.” He ended the call quick and set his phone down on the marble counter aggressively. Toni rushed back to the kitchen before Fangs came back out of the bathroom. When he did, she immediately got the worried look on her face when she saw him. He came into the kitchen and took out the Hot Pocket. He took a gruesome bite out of it, grimaced, and went to heat it up again. He underestimated the amount of time he was in there, apparently.

“Mind telling me what's up? You look like you watched a cat dying in there,” Toni said, trying to make the air around them not so thick with the feeling of misfortune.

“Oh, it was nothing.” Grumbled Fangs. When Toni was quick to shoot her eyebrow up at him, Fangs sighed aggressively and rubbed at his eyes harshly.

“Just.. stuff with my mom. It's complicated.” Cue Toni's eye roll, at which point, Fangs started talking.

“Well, you know how I send her money and stuff? Well, it's been a lot harder lately. I sent her a bit about two weeks ago that should've last her until the start of next month, but it just… seems like it never got to her,” at this he furrows his brows, matching Toni's confused look. “I wonder if she's been getting much of my money at all. D'ya think.. someone's been wiring it somewhere else?” He asked, pools of tears forming near his waterline as he finally looked over at Toni.

Toni pursed her lips and looked at him, and that's all the answer he needed. Someone has been stealing his money. And he intended to find out who it was.

A few hours later, Fangs was back in his tiny apartment, typing away at his old Windows 7, angrily hitting it every so often to make it work. He was sat on the ground, situated between his musty couch and flimsy coffee table. A lot of the furniture in his house he had gotten from yard sales from around the city, and while they weren’t Louis Vuitton level of luxury, they worked. The only thing he put real investment in was his bed, which was very expensive. He thought he had deserved to splurge on something nice to come home to, and although a lot of nights he didn’t actually sleep in it, naps were always heaven. With his laptop situated on the wood in front of him, and his headache growing by the minute, he messed around with the old piece of junk. He was frantically searching Google to find out if there’s a way to find out where his money has been wired to, but all he found was sketchy downloads that would supposedly trace the money. Eventually he gave up on the search and leaned his head on the cushions of the couch.

Who would steal money from someone trying to save their family? Who would purposely ruin a life like that? He barely had enough money for himself because a major part of his paycheck was sent over to his mother. He was trying to make everything work out. He’d keep them settled with his money over in Mexico for now, and once he could figure out how to get them over there to him and him having a steady job and home, it would be okay. But he needed to have a start and that dirty sex money was it, and there it goes, on a tangent to someone other than his mother and sister.

He decided, after an hour of silently crying against his couch, that he wouldn’t let this get him down. He would find who was stealing the money, teach them a little lesson— or get someone to do it for him—and he would get his money back. He tried to make himself think that it would be that easy so he wouldn’t have another breakdown, but in his mind, he knew better. 

At this time, it was 5:30, and even though it wasn’t even dark yet, he needed to go to bed. Fangs had a throbbing headache and needed to feel some sort of comfort today. Plus, he had a long day ahead of him. He had another night out tomorrow. He was going to go to the Northside to try and rope in a rich sucker. He was thinking of opening a separate bank account to send the money and wanted to get the money just in case it came to that point. And he was running out of instant ramen, which obviously, is a necessity. 

Surprisingly enough, Fangs forgot the whole money fiasco for a couple of days while he worried about other things happening in his life now. Toni and Cheryl had been helping him try to figure out how to trace his money since their friend Betty Cooper ad gone through something similar with her mom, except her mom had given the money to some whacked out Farm. He had to meet the girl soon, him and her might have a lot in common. Cheryl had some connections, too, so Fangs had time to focus his time on his own life. Between trying to find good college courses online and finding time to work, he was really struggling. The good courses he needed to start studying for a career in medicine were expensive, and he knew he’d have to either find another job or take more hours at the House, and both sounded like bad choices to him. Getting another job would mean more hours he had to deal with during the day. While his ‘hours’ at the House were very lenient, it was mainly a night job. If he got a day job, it would decrease his performance at both jobs by 43%, he looked it up. But if he picked up more hours at the House, it would almost be the same predicament. He would either have to go out and find willing bodies to sleep with all week, every night, or do the same thing except during the daytime instead. He could always quit at the House and find a normal job, but it paid very, very good and he couldn’t leave the girls and guys that were now his closest friends behind. He knew he had to come up with multiple solutions for multiple problems of his fast, but with everything crushing i on him all at once, he had a breakdown almost every day because of how stressed he was.

College was always a big dream of his. It was one of the main things he thought about when he was brought over to America with his father. As a boy, Fangs was always at the top of his class, being the scholarly figure others would look up to and the citizen other kids aspired to be. While that always seemed to be the cliche breeding ground for some tiny people bullying, Fangs always tried his best to be kind to people, which made it difficult for people to even try to be rude to the kid. Though, that didn’t stop him from getting into quarrels completely. While he was always an adamant believer in ‘The Golden Rule’, a lot of people got onto his nerves, and he would sometimes get into fights with said troublemakers. But that never fully affected his scholarly work, and he was promised a bright future if he kept working hard, so he did. Being a doctor is something he thought would be an amazing job, and he had always been reading medical books and researching new, fascinating things. He even once got to shadow a real doctor when he was younger and hearing all the fancy medical terms and seeing how they handle everything really interested him, even at such a young age. He wanted to help people.

While he was a bright kid academically, emotionally, well, he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure if he was in the shed again. Fangs was a fool for love. One quirky act of romance could get him swooning in a matter of minutes. That’s why he had to build a wall around his feelings, he knew that if someone could penetrate through his sensitive persona, it could be catastrophic, especially with his career. Normally, a whisper of sweet talk spoken by someone he was intimate with would melt him, but he knew his clients were only trying to get off. So, he learned how to whisper the sweet nothings back, pouring faux emotion into the words as he would grind his hips. It hurt, but it worked. And in the end, that's all that matters.


	2. chapter two

Fangs took a quick swig of water out of a plastic bottle before throwing it into a nearby trash can. The water, mixed with four Advil, washed down his throat quickly, to soothe an inevitable headache that was soon to come. As he walked towards the red and black colored night club, he could almost feel the vibration of the music from inside the packed building. It was a Friday night, no doubt it would be filled with horny, sweaty bodies, too willing to invite him to their place. Or, so he hoped. His insecurities got the best of him when going into situations like this, never knowing if he’d leave the midnight suitors with enough rent money. Leather jeans, an almost too see-through white shirt and studs in his ears was the main course for tonight, and he hoped the rich people in the room couldn’t smell the Target radiated off of his clothing. While he may have looked good, the way he was feeling was a whole other story. He fixed his too-tight jeans, adjusting the crotch area, which was getting pinched every time he moved his legs and walked towards the doors. He looked up at the bouncer through his eyelashes and subtly licked his lips. Michael was a frequent client of the house, and Fangs won’t like, he was amazing in bed. So the flutter of his lashes and quick self lip action got Michael to open the doors fast while clearing his throat. He immediately felt a buzz in his head as he inhaled the smell of sex and alcohol and let his ears thrum at the sound of Rihanna’s Cockiness. 

He walked into the building, patting himself on the back for remembering the Advil. He tried to look excited to be here, brushing his hands over the waists of the women that come to grind over on him. With the free bar for a couple hours and the multiple suitors around him, he was in heaven. And that’s what happened over the course of the next few hours, drinking profusely and dancing with random people in the room. Eventually, he got really into it when Jeremih’s “Don’t Tell ‘Em” came on and he was ready to go down on anyone that asked. It was mostly the alcohol, but he was happiest when he was wasted off his rocker. Someone with strong arms and minty smelling breath came up behind him and a drunken laugh reverberated from the bottom of his throat as him and the stranger smashed their bodies together for a while. From what his cloudy mind could tell, the stranger was pretty damn attractive. Seductive eyes and pouty lips, which Fangs tested many times to make sure we're working properly (they were), made him look like one hot ass motherfucker. He made the drunken decision to follow the guy out the door, mostly because their hands were already locked together and the stranger was leaving, pulling Fangs along with him.

They shared many giggly kisses on the way to wherever the stranger’s home was, which Fangs paid no attention to the direction to. He knew, somewhere in the back of his mind that was he was doing was idiotic and wrong, but the stranger held him so well, it sent tingles up his spine, and he absolutely could not get enough of his lips. Once they got to where the man lived, wherever the hell that was, his back made contact the wall and the man began to unbutton his shirt while biting at his lips. Fangs gripped tightly at the man’s jawbone and the back of his neck and pulled him as close as he possibly could without breaking any of their teeth. His shirt almost ripped in two when the man was able to finally get all the buttons undone on his shirt and pulled it off of him. Fangs began to undo the man's belt while fiercely kissing him on the lips and on his jaw line until he realized he needed to know something important.

“Wait,” he said, pulling away and looking at the man in front of him. He looked annoyed, but stopped what he was doing and leaned his head on Fang’s shoulder, his breathing semi-rapid. 

“Yes?” He asked, absent-mindedly toying with the hem of Fangs’ jeans.

“What’s your name?” Fangs asked, eyes moving downwards, scanning the guy’s build. A chuckle bubbled in the man's chest and he pulled away from Fangs, causing Fangs to let out a little whine, which was completely unintentional and even surprised Fangs. As the man took off his shirt and Fangs was able to rake his eyes over the small number of tattoos littered over his tan skin, he pulled Fangs close and led him to where he assumed the bedroom was.

“Sweet Pea, Pea for short,” he said, a little grin forming as he pulled Fangs in for another steamy kiss. And while the name seemed oh-so-familiar, he brushed it off as his drunk self wanted to get down and dirty as quickly as possible.

Once Fangs had woken up, he immediately wished he hadn’t. His head throbbed as if it was getting squeezed constantly, and his body ached as if he just ran ten marathons in a row. As he slowly peeled his eyes open, he whined softly into the pillow he was pressed against, a small pool of drool curled around his bottom lip and cheek. The world seemed to spin as he sat up and reached over to grab his phone until he realized he wasn’t in his apartment like he usually was. Fangs looked around the large, white room, with no sign of the man from last night in there. What was his name again? Sweet Tea? Good Pee? Fangs couldn’t remember, so he soon gave up on guessing weird combinations of names. Plus, thinking hurt his head. He sat all the way up and placed his bare feet on the floor, grimacing as the coolness of the hardwood and stood all the way up. Making sure he had good balance, he reached into his jeans to grab his phone and slipped on his shirt from last night, not bothering to button it up before walking to the door and opening it. The hallway was long and narrow with a lot of doors that eventually led to a staircase. He looked around the room, making sure he hadn’t missed the man anywhere and begun to walk out the door. He could hear soft whistling from the left of the long staircase and decided to follow the noise. It’s not like he could get any more embarrassed at this point, he just slept with someone for free, for God’s sake. That’s enough to make a huge blow to the small level of dignity he had left. 

He walked down the staircase, wishing he had at least attempted to slide on those godforsaken cheap leather pants. The guy’s house was as cold as a butcher’s freezer and Fangs already had a low tolerance for cold temperatures. Goosebumps continued to appear on his legs as he walked towards the whistling, which apparently was coming from the kitchen. He could smell the sweet, sweet smell of sausage and hash browns and decided that this was his future husband. Until he saw his face clearly, for the first time in the night they’d spent together. He was one of the guys that followed him that one night, scared him half to death, and he remembered from that night, one of the guys had called the other one Pea. Sweet Pea. And Pea for short. Fangs felt like he couldn’t breathe. Upon hearing the floorboards creak, Sweet Pea looked up and shot Fangs a tiny smile. Fangs forced one back, trying to subtly pull his shirt over his exposed chest.

Sweet Pea was already dressed and looking as perfect as he did last night. He wore overly worn skinny jeans, some old boots, a maroon shirt and a leather jacket over it all. He wore a slight smile, his eyes creasing at the edges as laugh lines adorned his face. He looked so happy and carefree, nothing like how he remembered the two demons from that night. 

“You like sausage? Potatoes? I make them good, I promise,” he pressed quirking an eyebrow up and turned off the stove that was embedded into the island in the middle of the counter. He brought the pans off the stove top and placed them on hot plates.

“No thanks.” Fangs said quickly, finally finding his voice. He felt his phone vibrate and looked at it, trying to read the notification through the cracks running through the screen. He could only see it was from Cheryl and decided that was enough bases to get out of there and see what she needed.

“I need to go,” Fangs said, filling the empty air around them. Sweet Pea’s head shot over as an overdrawn frown was placed upon his strong features. He sighed the placed his food onto two plates, which Fangs thought was weird. No one was here, he thought, and he just said he didn’t want any. Sweet Pea set the plate on the table to Fang’s left and strode over with his long legs to stand in front of him. He pulled Fangs into a deep kiss, smacking their teeth and noses together in the process. This surprised Fangs way more than he’d like to admit and he melted into the kiss, even though his head was telling him not to. His dick though, way more convincing. The kiss lasted for only a second, but in that second, Sweet Pea had slipped something papery into Fangs’ hand, squeezed his ass and pulled away. Chest rising fairly quickly, Sweet Pea flashed Fangs a boyish smile, completely contradicting the feverish kiss that had occurred mere seconds ago. Fangs was taken aback and didn’t say anything as he stepped back towards the stairs, mouth slightly agape, mind still struggling to process what happened. Usually, clients were trying to rush him out as soon as possible so their wife wouldn’t see them, but Sweet Pea almost seemed to want him to stay. Or maybe that was a cracked out way of telling him to get out of his house. He wasn’t like other clients, he supposed. As he looked down at the paper Sweet Pea placed in his hands and realized it was money, he scratched his neck as he went to go put on his pants. He furrowed his eyebrows as he counted it, nearly $700. $690, to be exact. Fangs furrowed his eyebrows while laughing slightly. This was over double what other clients had given him, even the rich ones. No, he wasn’t like other clients at all.

He left the house and realized he was in Greendale, one of the really nice parts of the area they lived in. He had memorized the route to the bus stop, as he’s been in this neighborhood before, multiple times. The trashy nightclub was actually a very good place to get some of the wealthier clients, surprisingly. Fangs had always assumed it was because it would be easier for old, perverted men to find willing drunk girls to come home with them. Fangs never addressed the irony in that situation, but it’s what he had been going to the club for, except to find older men instead. Priorities were important to Fangs, quite obviously.

He only had enough money (from before the $700) to make it to the edge of the north side in Riverdale, which was still heavily occupied by many Southsiders. This was where the notorious Southside Serpents loved to meet, which is why only using the money he had from before Sweet Pea kind of sucked, but he needed to save up the higher bills for other things he needed. He settled into a slight jog to get to Toni’s house, trying to see what Cheryl wanted. He didn’t get jumped the entire way there, which he was happy about. Priorities, right?

Once he got to the house and let himself in, he realized something was wrong. Normally, during the day, Toni and Cheryl were loud and playful, playing loud music and dancing around in their underwear. These were his best friends in the entire world, he even joins them in the underwear dancing sometimes, so he knew that them not being giggly and fun around the house, even just the two of them, was awry.

“Cheryl? Toni? Y’all alive?” He yelled, walking through the house over to the kitchen, with no one in there. Then to the living room, where Cheryl sat on the couch, chewing on her acrylic nails and looking through her phone. 

“Hey, Cher, you good? I got your text, didn’t read it, but I got it.” He said, chuckling as he stood in front of her with his arms crossed. Cheryl got up and kissed him on the cheek.  
“I was just checking if you’ve seen TT, she hasn’t been home in a couple of hours. She said she was going to meet someone for a little, but that was early in the morning. I’m starting to get worried.” She said, pursing her lips and looking back down at her phone. Fangs took a peek at and saw it was Toni’s contact, with many texts sent to Toni, asking what was up and why she wasn’t home. Fangs let out a sigh and pulled out his own phone, and clicking on Snapchat. With a few clicks, he had gotten her location from SnapMaps and showed it to Cheryl, who mumbled ‘why didn’t I think of that?’. She pushed her phone into the pocket of her bright red skinny jeans and grabbed her car keys. 

“Let’s go get the idiot,” he said, grinning and going out to Cheryl’s car. During the drive to the south side, he had told Cheryl what had happened last night and this morning. She had asked him if he thought he’d get it again and Fangs had let ‘I sure fuckin hope so’ slip out before he could stop himself which made Cheryl burst out laughing. Fangs kept trying to make the situation bright for Cheryl, because no matter how many snarky comments she made, he knew she was worried, especially with how long she’s been in the south. Once they had reached where SnapMaps had said where Toni was, Fangs groaned internally. Black leather jackets adorned with the Southside Serpents emblem were everywhere, chattering away with each other or just slowly drinking expensive beer in corners of the area. He and Cheryl got out of the car and walked towards the center of the meeting area, people from the gang beginning to notice them and walking towards them, crossing their arms and trying to seem intimidating. Fangs rolled his eyes. While the Serpents were pretty scary at times, Fangs would never let his knees quiver in front of them. They were pretty harmless most of the time, and with the House being around, they were tame with the girls and him. But knowing that Toni had been here for so long made him wonder what had happened between the Serpents and Toni that had kept her here. Two Serpents came to face them and Fangs sighed overdramatically. 

“Where’s Toni?” He asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Busy. She’s with the ki-” He cut them off.

“Where is Toni?” He asked again, and while he knew he didn’t look very intimidating compared to the two giants, he could tell they just wanted to get back to messing around and drinking till they couldn’t stand. They nodded their heads for the two to follow them and Fangs quickly glanced over to Cheryl, who flashed him an impressed smirk before they followed the men into a medium sized building that was humid and hot. He heard shouting that had seemed to originate from the end of the hall. He recognized the loud voice as Toni’s and shook his head.

“-Like fucking Hell Jughead! I never ever stole money from you or your fucking boys. You need to lay off your little gang friends and stop following my girlfriend, friends and I around! I am so fucking sick of your bullshit, Jones!”

By the time Toni had gotten to that point, Fangs, Cheryl, and the Serpents walked through a curtain that leads to a red colored lit room and drew the attention of everyone in the room. There was a guy in a weird hat, who he assumed was Jughead, Toni, who was facing him, and then some guy sitting in a chair off to the side. Fangs had squinted to try and see who the guy was and once he saw the familiar face, he wanted to shoot himself.

Sweet Pea stood up quickly when his eyes had shifted over to where Fangs and Cheryl now stood, and Fangs noticed he had looked way more angry to see him there than he was happy. It made Fangs wonder where that boyish smile from earlier went. Seeing Sweet Pea look mad at him like that made him uneasy, and he moved his eyes away from Sweet Pea to look at Jughead, who sighed and put his hands on his hips. Toni, who had huffed and glowered at Jughead, had looked over at the two intruders at the same time as everybody else. She opened her mouth in surprise at the sight of her best friend and girlfriend but closed it quickly.

“Can we help you?” Pea had asked, which almost offended Fangs. Why’d he sounded so cold when he said that? Fangs ignored him and looked at beanie-boy, who looked at them expectantly as if he was asking them the same question with his eyes. 

“Um, I believe my TT was handing you your ass on a silver platter. Don’t ignore her,” Cheryl said, with her hands on her hips, her head tilted with a cocky grin on her face. Toni let out one more harsh breath of air and walked over to the pair in the doorway.

“Don’t worry, Cher, I was just leaving. Let’s go,” she said, grabbing Cheryl’s hand and Fangs wrist and walking down the hallway. Fangs made eye contact with an agitated Sweet Pea before fully turning around and marching out with Toni. He didn’t get far, though, because before soon, Pea had grabbed his other wrist and was pulling him off to the side. He said a quick ‘one minute’ to the pair and looked at Sweet Pea, who pursed his lips and knitted his eyebrows together.

“What are you doing here?” The tall boy asked. Fangs rolled his eyes.

“Trying to stop Toni from killing your precious king, what else?” He said, smiling snarkily and crossing his arms.

“Don’t come around here,” he paused. “Please. It’s not safe.” Sweet Pea subtly brushed his hand across Fangs’ hip. Fangs lost his nerve and his arms fell to his side. His knees almost gave out until his brain processed what Sweet Pea had just said. 

“Not safe? Are you kidding me? I’m in a fucking Whore House, Pea, I’m pretty damn sure I can handle myself. Thanks for the 700 bucks. Kiss my ass.” He said, and swiftly turned around and walked to Cheryl’s car without giving Sweet Pea a chance to reply to him. He may have overreacted, but to him, Sweet Pea was calling him weak, and he had to let him know he could take of himself. He supposed the only reason he got so defensive was that's how his father had treated him before he ran away with some chick. Fangs always felt like he was still trying to prove himself to his father, and Sweet Pea treating him like some weakling just hit a soft spot in his reserve. As he stepped into the car and clicked his seatbelt, he heard the sultry voice yell “That’s not what I meant!” But he just crossed his arms and tightened his jaw and let Cheryl drive to Toni’s house. After a while, Cheryl stopped at a red light and both her and Toni looked back at him.

“What?” He spat out.

“What was that about?” Toni asked, a slight grin on her face, acting carefree as if she hadn’t just screamed at the leader of a gang a mere few minutes ago.  
Fangs paused, staring at the white leather seats in front of him, looking like an angry child who didn’t get a McDonald’s happy meal.

“Men ain’t shit,” he grumbled, which made Toni and Cheryl glance at each other before they sighed and turned around. Eventually, they finally got to Toni’s house, and Fangs hurried in and got a Cherry Coke from the refrigerator and the gin from the cupboard and sat at the counter to sulk like the little boy he was. He took shots and chased them with the sweet drink, without the bother of Cheryl and Toni, who went upstairs to talk and leave Fangs be. He had only done that for a little while before he got tired of getting drunk, for once, and went to lay on the couch, where he quickly fell asleep.

“Why was he here?” Jughead spat at Sweet Pea, who sat on the worn leather chair in the corner of the room, staring at the concrete floor angrily.

“Huh? You gonna answer me, Sweets? Or do I gotta go find that boy and ask him why he was here myself?” Sweet Pea rolled his eyes and stood up. 

“It was just some whore, like Toni, okay? Here for her. Chill the fuck out, bro. Don’t you have to worry about what Topaz was sayin’ to you? Before they even got here, she was sayin’ some dumb stuff. Threats. Is that why you had me and Joaquin follow him that one night? ‘Cuz of her? He was scared shitless, ya know?” He said, yelling half of that in the king’s face before storming out of the “HQ” the Serpents had. His mind was a cluster of things ever since he saw Fangs and Topaz’s girlfriend storm in here, and he didn’t know why. Last night and this morning, he just wanted to get some and leave the boy wanting more, but seeing him here, and knowing the type that some people were, he got scared for the boy. Or maybe he got worried about him. He just didn’t want him around here anymore. And once he threw the whole “I’m not weak” rant at him, he didn’t know what to say. He was just trying to help him, warn him about being around here. Sweet Pea didn’t know what to think of it. Eventually, though, he had decided to forget about him and go along with his day. If Fangs thought that being in some whore house from across the block justified him being in Serpent territory and acting like that? Sweet Pea will let him, and see how long he’ll hold up that front. Oh, this was going to be one interesting time.


End file.
